Patience is a Virtue Abraham Lincoln is considered today, to be one of the best presidents of the United States. However he was despised by many at the time of his election. When he was elected a number of states in the south insisted that they would not be governed by him and wanted to secede. By the time he of his inauguration seven states had already seceded with four more following shortly after. The Confederates seceded because they feared that slavery would be ended, and they felt it was too important to their economy. Their actions are still considered to be too severe because although Lincoln was against slavery, he was not prepared to take any direct action to stop it. He believed that if he stopped to spread of slavery then it would die out in the far future. He also believed the slaves did not believe to become American citizen and should be shipped back to Africa after they gained freedom.

Abraham Lincoln said he only cared about preserving the United States of America and joining the Confederacy back to the Union. Lincoln saw Fort Sumter as the perfect opportunity to bait the Confederates into war. Fort Sumter was a Union fort in South Carolina, and President Lincoln decided to send supplies there, knowing it would upset the Confederates because it shows that the union had no plans of giving it up. The Confederates respond by firing on the fort for thirty-three hours and completely destroyed it, but not killing anyone. This is considered the first battle in the Civil War and what started the fighting. The Union people thought that it would be an easy win for them but the Confederates comes strong out of the gate. The Union was struggling with finding a general that could create the winning formula. The Union lost some key battles early on; however it filled them with passion and made them hungry for victory. Eventually Ulysses S. Grant took the reins and the Union went on to victory.

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...Simmons December 15, 2008 Abraham Lincoln and the EmancipationProclamation On January 1, 1863, as the nation approached its third year of bloody civil war, United States President Abraham Lincoln issued the EmancipationProclamation. The proclamation declared "that all persons held as slaves" within the rebellious states" are, and henceforward shall be free." The EmancipationProclamation consisted of two executive orders. The first one, issued September 22, 1862, declared the freedom of all slaves in any state of the Confederate States of America that did not return to Union control by January 1, 1863. The second order, issued January 1, 1863, named the specific states where it applied. When the proclamation came into effect, it was widely criticized, because it freed the slaves over whom some people said the Union had no power over. In practice, it committed the Union to ending slavery, which was a controversial decision in the North. Lincoln issued the Executive Order by his authority as "Commander in Chief of the Army and Navy" under Article II, section 2 of the United States Constitution. Initially, the proclamation did not free any slaves of the border states (Kentucky, Missouri, Maryland, Delaware, and West Virginia), or any southern state (or part of a state) already under Union control. It first directly affected only those slaves who had...

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The emancipationproclamation was an order signed by president Abraham Lincoln during the American Civil War in attempt to abolish slavery in the ten rebellion states in the confederacy. The order took effect on January 1, 1863 in attempts to free more than 3.5 million slaves in the confederate area where they rebelled against the Union, and to maintain apprehended freedom between the newly freed slaves and the federal government and military. This was a turning point in the Civil war as Abraham lincoln changed the focal point of the war from secession to slavery, which the South [Jefferson Davis] didn’t want to occur, in fear of losing foreign allies, such as anti-slavery Great Britain. The North really increased their chances of winning the war when changing the focus to slavery as they gained foreign allies, as the South lost them.
In the first document, “Lincoln Expresses Misgivings (1862)” President Abraham Lincoln discusses his concerns against signing the emancipationproclamation arguing his fear of it having little to no effect or results. Though Lincoln states that from a constitutional and legal standpoint he has no objections to the fact that he has the power to take all steps necessary to win the war by weakening the enemy, in which the emancipationproclamation would do to the South, he fears the potential massacre that could be a result of freeing the slaves. Lincoln...

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Abraham Lincoln and the EmancipationProclamation
The EmancipationProclamation led to the end of slavery, and is one of the most controversial documents in American history. Human slavery was the focus of political conflict in the United States from the 1830s to the outbreak of the Civil War in 1861. Abraham Lincoln, the Republican candidate for presidency in 1860, personally abhorred slavery and was pledged to prevent it from spreading to western territories. At the same time he believed that the Constitution did not allow federal government to prohibit slavery in states where it already existed.
Abraham Lincoln once said, “I claim not to have controlled events, but confess plainly that events have controlled me” (McPherson 21). In accordance with his quote, when President Lincoln issued the unprecedented EmancipationProclamation on January 1, 1863, Lincoln freed slaves in the Southern states, but he and his actions were being controlled by Civil War. The Civil War was fought between 1861 and 1865 between the Northern states, or the Union, and the Southern states, or the Confederacy. On September 22, 1862, in the midst of the Civil War, President Abraham Lincoln put forth a Preliminary EmancipationProclamation (Tackach 45). The document stated that after January 1, 1863, slaves belonging to all Southern states that were still in rebellion would be free...

...The EmancipationProclamation
"That on the first day of January, in the year of our Lord one thousand eight hundred and sixty-three, all persons held as slaves within any State or designated part of a State, the people whereof shall then be in rebellion against the United States, shall be then, thenceforward, and forever free.” One hundred and forty-six years ago, President Abraham Lincoln proclaimed freedom to 20,000 to 50,000 slaves who lived in Confederacy controlled areas of the United States.
Although President Lincoln originally entered into the Civil War to protect and reunite the Union, freeing the slaves living within areas under his control soon became an important war objective for the Commander in Chief. In December of 1861, President Lincoln proposed to Congress the freedom of slaves living in Union states the purchase of their own freedom through federal taxes. He also commended the free labor system and believed in the value of human rights over property rights. Lincoln’s opinions at the time were controversial. Many believed that banning forced labor would ruin the economy. However, Congress sided with President Lincoln, and on April 10th, 1862 Congress stated that any slave owner who freed their slaves would be compensated. This was a major step into the liberation of slaves living in the United States. The Union, led by Lincoln, continued to make progress when legislation passed outlawing slavery in United State...

...abolitionists, Abraham Lincoln issued an EmancipationProclamation,
freeing all slaves in rebellious states and permitting them to join the
Union army, effective as of January 1, 1863.
Although the Constitution refrained him from abolishing slavery
entirely, it empowered him to seize any enemy property being used to
wage war against the United States. The most valuable property that
the Confederacy possessed were slaves. Their slaves toiled in the
fields, tendering to crops that were used for food and clothing in the
Southern war effort, keeping food and factories running smoothly so men
could be free to fight in the army. By taking the slaves away from the
Confederacy, Abraham Lincoln was not only diminishing the embers of
hope for victory that the South had, but also rekindling the flame of
strength for the Union army.
General Benjamin Butler, a commander of Union forces occupying
Fortress Monroe in Virginia on the James River, provided a legal
rationale that sparked the idea of emancipation, and opened up a door
way for Union army success. When three slaves escaped unto his lines
on May 25 1861, he declared them all “contraband of war” and refused to
return them to their Confederate owner. After hearing word of the
chance for freedom that this new idea created, hundreds of
“contrabands” escaped to Union lines in the months that followed. On
the 30 of August, 1861, General John C....

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EmancipationProclamation
On the fateful day of September 22, 1862, President Abraham Lincoln put the EmancipationProclamation into effect after years of slavery. Essentially it was one of the first steps the United States took to free African American slaves, almost to a total of 3 million. (History.com) Several incidents led up to the EmancipationProclamation being put into effect. Originally when the war had broken out President Lincoln remained reserved on discussions like slavery since the country was still going through great upheaval and stated the war wasn’t because of slavery, but of “restoring the union”. (History.com) Not long after the issue of the EmancipationProclamation was put into effect African Americans where allowed to join the Union’s Military to fight against the South. (History.com) The EmancipationProclamation was originally a “Presidential order and not a law passed by Congress”. (History.com)
Several incidents that had led up to the EmancipationProclamation was; the election of President Lincoln. (History.com) Despite President Lincoln disagreeing with slavery when he was elected, he chose not to get involved with the slavery issue because there where many “abolitionists and radical Republicans”. (Histroy.com) Another...

...The EmancipationProclamation was an executive order issued by President Abraham Lincoln on January 1, 1863, as a war measure during the American Civil War, to all segments of the Executive branch (including the Army and Navy) of the United States. It proclaimed the freedom of slaves in the ten states that were still in rebellion,[1] thus applying to 3.1 million of the 4 million slaves in the U.S. at the time. The Proclamation was based on the president's constitutional authority as commander in chief of the armed forces;[2] it was not a law passed by Congress. The Proclamation also ordered that "suitable" persons among those freed could be enrolled into the paid service of United States' forces, and ordered the Union Army (and all segments of the Executive branch) to "recognize and maintain the freedom of" the ex-slaves. The Proclamation did not compensate the owners, did not itself outlaw slavery, and did not make the ex-slaves (called freedmen) citizens. It made the eradication of slavery an explicit war goal, in addition to the goal of reuniting the Union.[3]
Around 20,000 to 50,000 slaves in regions where rebellion had already been subdued were immediately emancipated. It could not be enforced in areas still under rebellion, but as the Union army took control of Confederate regions, the Proclamation provided the legal framework for freeing more than 3 million more slaves in those...

...The EmancipationProclamation
The emancipationproclamation was issued by Abraham Lincoln on January 1,
1863, during the American Civil War, declaring all "slaves within any State, or
designated part of a State... then... in rebellion,... shall be then,
thenceforward, and forever free." The states affected were enumerated in the
proclamation; specifically exempted were slaves in parts of the South then held
by Union armies. Lincoln's issuance of the EmancipationProclamation marked a
radical change in his policy.
After out break of the Civil War, the slavery issue was made acute by
the flight to Union lines of large numbers of slaves who volunteered to fight
for there freedom and that of there fellow slaves. In these circumstances, a
strict application of established policy would have required return of fugitive
slaves to their masters.
Abolitionists had long been urging Lincoln to free all slaves, and
public opinion suported that view. Lincoln moved slowly and cautiously nonethe
less; on March 13, 1862, the federal government fforbade all Union Army officers
to return fugitive slaves, thus annulling in effect the fugitive slave laws. On
April 10, on Lincoln's initiative, congress declared the federal government
would compenste slave owners who freed their slaves. All slaves in the District
of Columbia were freed in this way on April 16, 1862 . On June 19, 1862,...